It looks as though you have to pay twice if you want 32 and 64 bit too, as far as I can see. Grrr, meanies! I wonder if they come in a proper box like the Vista kits, or if they're just the disc like the ones for Centro?

I got I think to say. I am pretty disappoint comparing the Beta 2 and Beta 3 release dates. It was almost a full year between these two builds, and half a year between Vista's RTM Release. The software doesn't suprise me either.
It could be just me who can't find anything new or microsoft is moving too slow.
The name Windows Server 2008 makes me wonder....
and no free discs, that must be microsoft saving money too.

Like they need to save money... They can't have spent that much on Zune and Windows Live!

Has much actually changed between Beta 2 and 3 then, or have they spent the last year doing not much?

I don't know, much I don't see much changes, if i can't remember any changes, then there was no major change, meaning why microsoft is developing vista, they just did nothing with longhorn. Problary some new roles and etc, but then again I didn't install any builds between 5384 and 6001.

It looks as though you have to pay twice if you want 32 and 64 bit too, as far as I can see.

Yes, you do, but when they did a similar thing for Vista, it was just under twice the price, so factor in that they're posted separately, it works out about the same as it was for Vista. I think they do come in proper cases like they did with vista too.

I thought Vista was only about £10, £12, something like that, and for that you got both Beta 2 and RC1 boxes, and you got both 32 and 64-bit with each - even that was better value than this I reckon. Is anyone else going to order one of these, I was thinking about getting one for my collection (probably Enterprise 32-bit) but am wondering if it's too expensive to be worthwhile. I do like having the official beta kits though, and it would be nice to have a Server 2008 beta stored (I tend to just delete the public betas after a while rather than use one of my blank discs to keep them, I didn't keep Vista RC2 or anything like that).

Like they need to save money... They can't have spent that much on Zune and Windows Live!

Has much actually changed between Beta 2 and 3 then, or have they spent the last year doing not much?

NO, nothing much had changed. By now, I have install 5259, 5270, 5308 and beta 2. I only discover than beta 3 and build 5308 looks almost identical apart from the aero them and UI changes. Only new roles and new addon features are added to the os.
I can say that the amount of changes in 5270 to 5308 is about the same amount from beta 2 to beta 3.
I seriously don't know what happen to microsoft this year.
Point me out if I'm wrong.

I have so far installed the following Longhorn Server builds: 5112, 5384, 5600, 5728, 5744, 5757 and the various 6001 builds. Apart from some UI changes and the addition of new roles (speaking of the Enterprise Edition here), they all look similar but IMHO the new builds have been getting faster a bit with each release. I remember 5600 was quite buggy on my system and slow, the server wizards crashed multiple times and the later CTP releases were more stable and also faster (just like Vista) than the older builds. I guess to really discover some fundamental differences, you'd need to use it in a real server (i.e. Actrive Directory and stuff) environment.